Article April 29, 1996 Issue

Mind and health

Barbara M. Vining

It's not unusual for people to feel anxious about the well-being of their bodies, even though anxiety itself has certainly never proved to be good for one's health. In view of this, it's especially significant to consider Christ Jesus' instruction not to be anxious about the body, but rather to set one's heart on yielding to God's sovereign and benevolent government of man (see Matt. 6:25–33). Jesus said, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." And Jesus' ministry showed clearly the benefits "added"—the regeneration and healing—which are the natural result of trusting our life to God, instead of letting ourselves be fretted by worry.

In the practice of Christian healing, I have seen healing come consistently whenever a patient's fearful concern for the body has been displaced by the assurance that develops from knowing that all is within the perfect control of God, the divine Mind. This assurance comes through prayer. Not infrequently, when praying to help a patient destroy fear, Christian Science practitioners may find themselves voicing, in a few words to the patient, thoughts that are completely new to the practitioner and the patient—thoughts that reassure them both. On such an occasion, after getting off the telephone, I've even said to myself in amazement: "I didn't know that—I've never seen spiritual truth and its application to human need in just that way before! Thank you, God." When this happens, the patient and practitioner have both been buoyed by new insights into God's government of man, His beloved child. And it shouldn't be surprising, then, when the patient soon reports that there has been a healing. But the ways of God—though predictable because His law is entirely good—are sometimes surprising to the human mind.

The human mind is not the source of health. The divine Mind is. Therefore, to realize health, the human mind must yield not to fear and fretfulness but to the harmony of divine Mind—to Truth, Life, and Love—the universal Principle of all true being. This Principle, which Jesus demonstrated in his healing work, is explained in Christian Science. The Discoverer of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, makes this observation: "You embrace your body in your thought, and you should delineate upon it thoughts of health, not of sickness" (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 208). Genuine "thoughts of health" can come only from God—thus, the necessity of letting our thought receive instruction from Him through His Christ and His Science, and of letting our lives be governed by Him.

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